Allard Reviews

With terrorists attacking America and our way of life threatened, Allard Lowensntein stands out as a true hero of democracy and freedom in his work for the CIA to defeat Apartheid in South Africa while preventing a Communist take-over. "The Pied Piper" shows how America's intelligence community led and still leads the fight against tyranny and extremism while protecting our cherished values of liberty. This book is indispensable reading and a classic work on intelligence. It reads like a thriller, because it is, except it is all true. -Gower Leconfield

Kenneth Allard presents a succinct analysis of some of the challenges of operating in peace keeping deployments. He traces lessons learned through the planning, deployment, operations and support phases of the three different Somalia missions from August 1992 to March 1994. Relying on joint military doctrine, he compares the actual reports generated during and after the missions to the theoretical and doctrinal concepts of how operations should occur. Although his emphasis focuses on the military aspects of the Somalia missions, it includes ideas on interactions with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) like the Red Cross, coalition partners, and belligerents. The focus on civil military operations is especially relevant to civil affairs and psychological operations professionals.

Useful aspects of the book are the appendices which include a listing of humantiarian relief organizations that were in country, as well as the missions and structure of the Civil Military Operations Center (CMOC). The book also includes charts which outline the command relationships within the different Joint Task Forces (JTF's) established. Notably absent from Somalia Operations: Lessons Learned are footnotes and an index. Although Allard includes a selected bibliography in appendix A, it mainly serves to direct the military leader to sources of further reading. The lack of footnotes prevents scholars from reviewing the exact location of sources quoted within the book. Regardless, the book admirably draws heavily from quotes of senior leaders and after action reports.

This is a must read for any military professional who will deploy into a peace keeping environment like the Balkans. Also, leaders working within multinational humanitarian relief agencies and coalition forces will benefit from reviewing U.S. lessons learned in Somalia. These lessons are bound to be repeated if we don't learn from past mistakes.

Highly recommended.

I've read the book several times, and find the material to be quite interesting and entertaining. I would recommend it to aviation history buffs...

Harry Allard and James Marshall once again create a masterpiece, featuring the Stupids. Everything about this is perfect - the plot, the details, the illustrations that add the perfect counterpart to the text. I read this book with my family as a child, and we frequently had to stop to catch our breath because we were laughing too hard to read. Can't wait to read it to my children.

"A Time We Knew: Images of Yesterday in the Basque Homeland" is the product of a fascinating collaboration between photographer William Albert Allard and the dean of Basque-American literature, Robert Laxalt.

In the fall of 1967, Allard spent two months in the Basque country of northeastern Spain and southwestern France, capturing with his camera the everyday life of the people who lived there. Although Allard spoke no Basque and was linked to the Basque country only through his Basque wife, his stunning photos evoke the tremendous power of the Basque landscape and people: the haunting flanks of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques at evening; the gloomy mountains of the northern coast of Spain just at the approach of a storm; a rough-hewn woman with a scythe at Behorleguy, on the frontier between youth and age, in whose face is reflected the painful past of the ancient Basque people. From a technical point-of-view, these incredible photographs are so good that they could truly be "images of yesterday": the color is brilliant. Alas, though, "yesterday" in the Basque country is no more. The years since 1967 have seen the heavy industrialization of both the French and Spanish sectors of the Basque homeland and the gradual passing of the ancient ways Allard captures here.

Laxalt's contribution to this book is his prose vignettes, some of the best of his characteristically exquisite prose-poetry. A second-generation Basque-American whose father grew up in the French Basque country, Laxalt knows the region as well as probably anyone in the United States. While one cannot miss the heavy dose of romanticism in his prose ("Girls slender as reeds walking hand in hand down the lane, singing an ode to spring in soprano voices pure and light as air") and even pastoralism (exacerbated by the fact that the Basques are some of the world's greatest shepherds), it is obvious that Laxalt is a remarkable writer.

A poetic look at "yesterday" in the Basque country. Get it on your shelf.

"The Cat Who Came For Christmas" is the best book I have ever read. I am a cat person, and I have two cats. Cleveland Amory wrote a book that I can really relate to. Polar Bear (The cat) is extremely intresting to read about. I accidently stumbled upon this book at the library, and I decided to see if it was any good. When I learned that, yes, it was extremely good, I rushed right back to the library to get the rest of the trilogy! This is one book you don't want to miss!

The Cat Who Came for Christmas is a book that any cat lover will enjoy. It is about a white cat named Polar Bear. This is a true story about author Cleveland Amory, who is also an avid and prominent animal activist. Amory rescues Polar Bear, a stray cat, on Christmas Eve night and agrees to keep the cat with him until they find someone else to keep him. In the meantime, Amory gets attached to Polar Bear and decides to keep him. This book is a story of the antics of the first year that Amory had Polar Bear. Anyone who has ever owned a cat can identify with the way that Polar Bear always has the final say and wins out, but yet he captures Amory's heart and remains his best friend. If you love cats, you must read this book.

i found this book in the back of my closet when i was about 10 years old and when i first read it, i thought some parts were funny but i didn't understand most of the humor or vocabulary.

i just picked it up again this past year and its now my favourite book. it goes through some history about animals,(not just cats) some literature, lots of quotes and some of Amory's own history. the humor is cynical and hilarious, ranging from pill-ing cats to california to diets to relations between him, his cat and his friends (pobre Oso Polar)
this book is one of my all time favourites and even though i have reread it many times, excerpts i have memorized still make me laugh.

Miss Nelson is Back is written by James Marshall and Harry Allard, and was made for Miss Audrey Bruce.
This short story is about a group of nine children in classroom 209 with a teacher named Miss Nelson. When Miss Nelson is out for a week the children get a lesson taught to them that they will never forget.
Children will enjoy this book, because it is dealing with children and things that they go through.
Children can learn a good lesson for school about not messing with a substitute teacher , because one time you just might get a one that wont put up with any of their nonsence and could punish them very bad by possibly putting them in detention or worse.

Miss Nelson Is Back is written by James Marshall and Henry Allard, and was made for Miss Audrey Bruce.
This short story is about a group of nine children in classroom 209 with a teacher named Miss Nelson. When Miss Nelson is out for a week the children get a lesson taught to them that they will never forget.
Children will enjoy this book, because it is dealing with things that kids have to go through.
Children can learn a good lesson for school about not messing with a substitute teacher, because one time you might get a teacher that wont put up with any nonsense, and could punish them very bad by possibly putting them in detention or worse.

101 Dalmatians is written by Walt Disney Company, and its copyright is 1995.
I think that 101 Dalmatians is definitely appropriate for children. Kids can learn alot about counting in this story, and also they can learn about their favorite pets, dogs! If your child likes to read then this would be a great book for them, because it has a good amount of words for a child to read.
This short story is about two dogs that fall in love, and get their owners to fall in love also. Then the dogs had 99 puppies, and Cruella Devil gets two men to try to skin the puppies so that she could have a fur coat.

Dudley the stork takes his friends' advice and gets Madame Kreepy to conduct a seance. He needs to find out why wierd things happen at his house when he's trying to sleep. My two eight-year-old girls loved this book. Even their older sister thought it was funny. Our favorite line in the story is when the ghost tells Dudley "...I gave you a great, big, wet, kiss in the dark. Did you like it?" Nickelodeon should use this book as a basis for their next half-hour Halloween special!

I am a student at West Virginia State College currently taking a class called Children's Literature. Our instructor required us to read a banned/challenged book as part of our assignment and write our personal view of the book.

This is a hilarious book! I enjoyed reading it to my 8 year old son and he loved it. He thought it was so funny and not all scary. He loves scary stories, however, he did not find this book to be scary at all. I can see why some people might object to this book. It makes reference to a seance and a medium, but the book references it in a funny way and not at all serious. I would read this book to my classroom. I feel the children would enjoy and get a kick out of this book.

I had this book as a child. It is so funny, I still remember it. All of Harry Allard's books are fantastic.

A series of photo's that capture the modern day cowboys and the area countryside they call home.

The pictures shows sides of America many people don't know still exist. I have treasured this book for several years.

Color has a way of prettifying the West, and there are plenty of photography books that use color for that, some of them aiming for calendar art. Allard manages to use it with much broader intentions. He portrays not only the breadth and vastness of the Western landscape but the dust, dirt, and sweat of working with cattle and the irony of freedom when it's often just another word for nothing left to lose. If any book of Western photography captured the spirit of "Bobby McGee," this one surely does.

There are about 100 photographs in this collection, taken in cowboy country from Mexico to Montana during the years 1965-1980. A few are landscapes; most are of cowboys, some Native Americans, a few women and children. Allard has also included photographs of a rural Hutterite community in Montana. There are rodeo pictures and scenes of roundup and of night-life, men either gathered around a campfire or hanging out in bars. There are many fine portrait shots of men, their faces showing the fatigue and the effects of weather and years of tobacco and hard drinking. Scattered through the book are pages devoted to brief profiles of men Allard has befriended, young and old. A brief foreword is provided by Montana novelist Thomas McGuane.

My favorite images start with a shadowy landscape of Wyoming, dark and moody, while a setting or rising sun throws golden light over a ridge line in the middle distance. Second favorite is a swath of snow-covered Montana prairie with a fence line leading away to what looks like abandoned buildings on the horizon. There's a handsome portrait of a Nevada cowboy, bearded, looking into the camera under the brim of his hat with soulful dark brown eyes. There's a back-pocket view of a row of nine cowboys sitting on the top rail of a rodeo arena fence.

Many photos are just plain quirky. Three women rodeo performers in brightly colored cowboy hats rub Vaseline over their teeth. A man stands with his arm around the shoulders of a smiling woman wearing woolly chaps, while behind them another man lies passed out on the ground. A cowboy in black Stetson and long yellow rain slicker bends with a pool cue to line up a shot across a smoky pool table. Sitting alone at the end of a long row of bar stools, lighted by a long shaft of afternoon light, a cowboy sits slack-jawed and staring, a can of Olympia between his legs.

I loved this book and happily recommend it. If you can find a copy, it goes nicely on a shelf of Western literature. As companion volumes, I'd recommend Douglas Kent Hall's "Working Cowboys," Kendall Nelson's "Gathering Remnants" and a collection of vintage photographs, "The American Cowboy."

This book is magnificent. I found all kinds of new ways of looking at things, lighting. capturing the moment. I couldn't belive it. It effected something deep inside. not because of it "captured" cowboys, but because of the sheer artistry and Allard's vision and expertise.

The First time I read this book it only took two long evenings (I could not put it down). It was fascinating, funny, and each time I re-read it, I find it even more helpful and find even more information that I wasn't ready to understand the first time. Buy it, Read it, live it, and you will live better!!

I truly loved the book. I have found another book by the author to be even better. Adventures in selling was awesome! I've been a traveling salesman for ten years and can relate with most of Mr Allard's stories and profound understanding of the selling experience. If your a salesman, this book is a must!!!!

Mr. Allard's experiences and down to earth explanation of sales principles are awesome. The concept of building personal value prior to making any price adjustments and making your point understood are insights overlooked by sales material I have studied. Creating urgency through specials is a concept used but misunderstood by most of the business men I have dealt with. Everyone wants the best price whenever they buy a given product, but seldom are given the trusting feeling in the deal due to lack of apparent value to the sales person. Lending credibility to the principles are the many sales experiences shared in the book. I have been inspired by Mr. Allard's writing and am practicing and using the principles as I grow in my sales career. My job has become an adventure thanks to Lloyd Allard.